With Thanksgiving break just around the corner, I’ve been thinking about how I’d like to spend my time off. These past few weeks have been really hard for me in terms of metal health and I’m looking forward to going home tomorrow. Well, not exactly: I don’t have any friends back home, so break will definitely be a little lonely. But I don’t have to go to class! And I get to see my cat! And I can sleep in my own bed, in my own house, which is much quieter than the dorm ever is!

Next week, I’m going to do my best to balance productivity with rest. My anxiety and depression have been particularly bad lately so I don’t want to be too hard on myself because that would just cause even more stress, but I also know that one of the ways I deal with times like these is to throw myself into my work and bury my feelings… which probably isn’t the healthiest thing to do, but I don’t care. Hence, these are the five main things I plan to accomplish over Thanksgiving break.

1. Study and do as much homework as I possibly can

I had some pretty grand plans to DO ALL THE THINGS, academically-speaking, until my poor mental health intervened. THANKS, BRAIN. So I’ve scaled back my homework plans somewhat but there are still a bunch of things on my to-do list, as you can see below.

Prose Style: Read Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, create a presentation about a sentence from that novel, begin compiling a portfolio of the best twenty-five sentences I’ve written this semester, begin compiling a portfolio of five of the best sentences I’ve come across in my reading this semester

Foundations of the English Major: Continue to research and write my final paper, study vocabulary words, catch up on reading questions, draft a personal reflection paper

Media Shift: Choose a topic for the final paper, do some research for it, write that paper, get ideas for the three-essay take-home exam

I’ve barely written anything that wasn’t for school lately! I’m looking forward to working on some nonfiction pieces I hope to eventually submit for publication, as well as writing and scheduling a ton of blog posts for the coming months.

3. Spend time with my family

I haven’t been home since August! I’m planning to make mini pies with my dad and noodles with my mom… presumably I’ll wrangle my brother into something as well.

4. READ!

Ahhhh I miss reading as much as I used to in high school… or even during freshman year of college! I already have a bunch of books lined up to read – mostly comics, as well as stories that are happy and/or gay as hell. I hope to dedicate at least an entire day to reading, which is also something I’d like to do with items #1 and #2 on this list, schoolwork and writing.

5. Figure out how I want to spend winter break

Basically? I’m going to make a bunch of lists and include whatever I didn’t get around to at all (or didn’t do as much as I would have liked) during Thanksgiving.

Me: Should I give the short version or the long version? … I have a paper I’m supposed to be writing, so I’ll go with the long one:

Tuesday: I’ll probably get home around 4 or 5 PM. Hopefully, I shall reunite with old high school friends. There may be a Poker game that night, which I haven’t played since September and I very much miss it.

Wednesday: Step 1: get haircut. Step 2: impress parent’s with new piano moves. Step 3: Visit old coworkers at McDonald’s; talk to general manager about returning for winter break. 4) Go see Doctor Strange with high school friend. (If you’ve seen that movie, what’d you think?)

Thursday: the fam’s going to my grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving, which should be fun, providing no one brings up politics. I recently donated to Planned Parenthood in my aunt’s name, so hopefully she won’t find out about that until afterwards.

Friday: I’m visiting my other grandparents in the Queens, and my whole dad’s side of the family’s going to be there. I don’t know why exactly, but I’ve really started to enjoy hanging out with my extended family. I like to think it’s because I’ve grown more comfortable with myself over the past year or so, but mainly it’s because I’m now allowed to drink with them. I don’t think I’ve mentioned just how Irish my family is, but yeah, they love the booze, and as a result, spending time with them has become so much more fun.

Saturday-Sunday: Just chillin’. I’m planning to make my grand return to blogging, with a post-a-day from December 17th to January 17th, so I’ve been scheduling and brainstorming posts accordingly. I also have a coupon for a Hardee’s nearby, so I plan on taking full advantage of that. At some point the family should catch up on missed episodes of Brooklyn Nine Nine, which my parents refuse to watch without us. Have you heard of that show? I think you’d like it. For one thing, it has a gay main character who’s one of the funniest sitcom characters I’ve ever seen, for reasons that have nothing to do with his sexuality.

I’m also going to try convincing my parents to get a dog. Let’s see how that works out.

I don’t have a Thanksgiving break because, y’know, I’m British. But term ends in a couple of weeks anyway, and then — due to how dates fall and with Easter being late next year and so on — I have six weeks’ break. I’ll have dissertation stuff and coursework to do, and being at home for that long will be a mixed blessing, but I’m so fatigued I’ll take any sort of break right now.